Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies & Managem
ent
The effects of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police and
citizen outcomes: A state-of-the-art review
Journal: Policing: An International Journal
Manuscript ID PIJPSM-03-2017-0032
Manuscript Type: State-of-the-Art Review
Keywords: body-worn cameras, BWCs, police legitimacy, police accountability, police behavior
Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies & Management
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The effects of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police and citizen outcomes: A state-of-the-
art review
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to review the extant of the published literature on body-
worn cameras (BWCs) in policing, specifically in the context of how BWCs effect both citizens
and officers.
Design/methodology/approach – The current study is a narrative review of the impact of BWCs
on police and citizens generated through a search of four repositories (Google Scholar, Criminal
Justice Abstracts, EBSCO Host, PsychInfo).
Findings – The current narrative review identified 21 articles that matched the selection criteria.
In general, this body of research demonstrates that: (a) the police are supportive of BWC
adoption; (b) the evidence from BWC evaluations suggests that the use of BWCs can have
benefits for police-public encounters.
Practical implications – The practical implications derived from this narrative review suggest to
police administrators that the adoption and effective implementation of BWCs are one
mechanism that can strengthen police-community relationships and decrease police misconduct
through enhanced legitimacy and accountability.
Originality/value –This study is useful for researchers who wish to further examine BWC issues
in policing, for police managers/administrators who are currently utilizing BWC technology, and
for those who are considering adopting BWC technology.
Keywords: body-worn cameras; BWCs; police legitimacy; police accountability; police
behavior
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Introduction
In the wake of increased media attention surrounding several questionable interactions
between police officers and citizens in recent years, policing has come under increased scrutiny
from the public and the media. Some members of the public feel as though the police are rarely
held to account for their actions, oftentimes because the only evidence is conflicting testimony
from the citizen and the officer involved in the encounter. To enhance the legitimacy of the
police, law enforcement agencies are increasingly implementing BWCs to provide video
evidence of what transpired during police-citizen encounters. Theoretically, if officers and
citizens know they are being recorded, BWCs should alter their behavior. Furthermore, the video
footage can potentially provide objective evidence to substantiate the claims of citizens who
accuse the police of wrongdoing and the claims of officers who are wrongfully accused.
While many of the most recent—and highly publicized—interactions between police and
community members have occurred in the United States (e.g., Philandro Castile, Keith Scott,
Sylville Smith), the use of BWCs as a policy solution is not limited to the United States. In fact,
police forces in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada—among others—have all adopted
BWC technology. Although a growing number of police forces are adopting BWCs, only a
handful of peer-reviewed scientific studies have been published as of January 2017. And,
although there is a relatively small number of studies that have been published on this topic,
there are some consistent and interesting findings that have emerged from the BWC literature.
The current study provides a narrative review of the effects of BWCs within policing,
specifically examining the impact that BWCs have had on both officers and citizens.
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Current Study
The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we review the extant BWC literature, and
we focus on presenting the major findings and trends that have emerged from the research.
Second, we discuss directions for future research and identify methodological issues that are still
in need of being addressed. Third, we conclude by highlighting policy challenges that can be
gleaned from these studies and that need to be addressed going forward.
Methods
English language publications were identified using a search of several academic
databases (i.e., Criminal Justice Abstracts, EBSCO Host, PsychInfo, Google Scholar), and two
search terms were utilized: “police body worn cameras” and “law enforcement body worn
cameras.” The search yielded 52 non-duplicate entries, including research articles, legal reviews,
editorials, news articles, policy documents, and methodological papers. After reading through
titles, abstracts, and full-text documents, the search was narrowed to include only those
publications that contained empirical assessments and/or evaluations of BWCs to examine the
impact of the technology through specific research questions using experimental, quasi-
experimental, and non-experimental research designs. This screening process generated 21
research articles that fulfilled our criteria. Table 1 presents summary information on the
empirical studies contained within the 21 research articles.
______________________________________________________________________________
I n s er t Ta b l e 1 a b o u t h ere
______________________________________________________________________________
Results
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The studies included in this review investigate the effects of BWCs on several citizen-
focused outcomes: complaints, resistance to police, and perceptions of officer behavior. Other
studies assessed the effects of BWCs on the perceptions and behaviors of officers: use-of-force,
perceptions of BWC, and the impact of BWCs on decision-making in enforcement. We separate
out the results related to citizens and to officers as we believe that separating the two groups of
outcomes makes it easier to digest this body of literature.
BWCs Effects on Citizens
Although arguably a simplistic measure of BWC effectiveness, the first citizen dimension
reviewed focuses on BWCs impact on citizen complaints. These events represent the sentiments
of the community member who files the complaint (Lersch & Mieczkowski, 2000). In the first
published randomized-controlled trial of body-worn cameras by Ariel, Farrar, and Sutherland
(2015), the authors found no significant differences between treatment shifts and control shifts
during the year that cameras were introduced. However, they did report a significant reduction
(87% in overall complaints) when comparing the experimental year to the previous year. While
surprising that no effect was seen between experimental and comparison groups, this has also
been found in another study using different police agencies (Ariel et al., 2016a; 2016b). The
authors attributed this lack of between-group difference to the large overall reduction in
complaints before and after implementation, and to what they refer to as ‘contagious
accountability’ (Ariel et al., 2016c). Specifically, they found that complaints against officers
declined from 1.20 complaints to 0.08 complaints, on average, when comparing the pre-
treatment and post-treatment complaint rates across the seven experimental sites, and many of
these sites were large urban centers.
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These results, however, are not universal. A study from Orlando, Florida found that
BWCs reduced serious external complaints by 65% in the experimental group compared to a
control group (Jennings, Lynch, & Fridell, 2015). A similar finding was reported by Hedberg,
Katz, and Choate (2016) in Phoenix, Arizona, however in a non-randomized controlled trial.
Using a different sample and a different analytical technique, these authors showed that BWCs
significantly reduced citizen complaints by 62% when compared to a control group.
A second group of studies examined the effects of BWCs on citizens’ resistance to
officers. Recall that BWCs are meant to positively influence the behavior of citizens’ as they
know the encounter is being recorded and can be used as evidence against them. However,
findings from this research calls into question the veracity of this proposition. For example,
research from Hedberg et al. (2016) from Arizona suggested that BWCs had no impact on citizen
suspect resistance. Moreover, Ariel et al. (2016a) demonstrated that reported rates of assaults
against officers were actually higher compared to controlled conditions when cameras were used
when averaged across the ten experiments in their study. On the other hand, Ariel et al (2017)
have shown that on a before-after basis, BWCs were linked to an overall reduction in assaults
against the police.
Lastly, three studies reviewed here investigated how BWCs affect citizens’ perceptions of
police behavior and how BWCs affect citizens’ willingness to report crime. With regards to
police behavior, it is presumed that officer behavior should be perceived by the public as more
legitimate/lawful citizens know that officers are being recorded. This premise was partially
supported by Culhane et al. (2016). In their study, participants were asked to evaluate the
justifiability of the police shooting in which several conditions were manipulated, including the
presentation of the case information (BWC vs. audio vs. transcript). Their results demonstrated
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that, overall, 39% of the sample thought the shooting was justified; however, both the BWC and
audio condition participants rated the shooting as more justified compared to the transcript
condition. The researchers conducted this study again post-Ferguson. Interestingly, 39% of the
post-Ferguson sample thought the shooting was justified, but, those in the BWC condition had
the lowest certainty of justifiability. In addition, one year post-Ferguson, Culhane and Schweitzer
(2017, in press) found that BWC and audio conditions saw the officer as being slightly more
justified in the shooting compared to transcript condition {M= -0.56 and M= -0.07 compared to
M= -1.00 respectively, with scores ranging from -5.00 (“completely unjustified”) to 5.00
(“completely justified”)}, but these differences were not statistically significant.
BWCs Effects on Officers
One of the fundamental justifications for BWC is that they will affect officers’ behavior
as well as citizens’. BWCs are meant to positively influence the actions of officers, leading to
greater legitimacy and lower misconduct (Ariel, 2016). Our review suggests that BWCs can
influence officers in several ways, but the putative “positive” impact on officer behavior is not
always substantiated. for example, Tankebe and Ariel (2016) have shown that police officers are
rather cynical about the benefits of BWCs. In what follows, we look at officer attitudes, behavior
and effects on procedural elements of law enforcement.
The first factor we review here is whether and how officers’ attitudes towards BWCs
change after wearing the technology. Some police agencies and labor organizations have
vehemently denied the benefits of, and seriously questioned the need for, BWCs (Conarck,
2017). This reticence is particularly important given the research suggesting the effectiveness of
BWCs is directly related to the frequency with which the technology is activated (Hedberg et al.,
2016; Young & Ready, 2016), and the degree to which the officers adhere to the protocol or
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apply discretion when turning on/off their camera. Nevertheless, Jennings et al. (2014) and
Ready and Young (2016) both found that officers were generally very receptive of BWCs, and
officers believed that the technology would be good to use to regulate officer behavior and
improve police-community relations.
Despite this evidence pointing toward generally positive officer perceptions of and
receptiveness toward BWCs, other research suggests that BWCs can create a “perception bias”
(Bolvin et al., 2017). For example, in a laboratory test with police recruits in Montreal, Canada
were shown video footage of a fictional police shooting via either a BWC or a wall-mounted
surveillance camera. The authors reported that the justifiability of the shooting was significantly
affected by camera perspective. Here, police recruits who viewed the BWC perspective were
more likely to report that the officer fired too early (Bolvin et al., 2017). Similarly, Smykla et al.
(2016) found that respondents were reticent to adopt BWCs over a strong concern that the media
might use BWC footage to persecute the police. Moreover, research from three western U.S.
cities indicated higher perceptions of BWC use post-implementation but also became more
skeptical about BWCs impact on citizen cooperation or officer professionalism (Gaub et al.,
2016). While the reasons for these differences are unclear, an interesting explanation comes from
Young and Ready (2015) who found that officers’ perceptions were strongly related to the
attitudes of other officers in the same social network.1
1 It is possible that officers who view BWCs as illegitimate could contaminate the attitudes of their colleagues. This
result should not be seen as entirely surprising given much of the work on organizational change in policing. The
Police Executive Research Forum developed the “Good to Great Policing” system, which highlighted the need to get
the right people in the right places to make organizational change more effective (Wexler, Wycoff, & Fischer,
2007). This system argues that organizational change is most effective when administrators get respected people
(i.e., those with dense networks within the agency) to advocate on behalf of the change and minimize the ability of
those who will never support the effort to influence others. Many police agencies are adopting BWCs and mandating
officers to use the technology without considering how the decision may be leveraged. The research seems to
suggest this may not be the best course of action.
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A second line of research examines how BWCs change officers’ behavior. Overall, the
research clearly suggests that BWCs do alter officer behavior. For instance, research
demonstrates that BWCs make officers less likely to use force (Ariel, et al., 2015; Ariel et al.,
2016b; Henstock & Ariel, 2017), make officers more likely to make arrests in cases of intimate
partner violence (Morrow et al., 2016), and make officers less likely to stop-and-frisk people on
the street (Ready & Young, 2015). In addition, research from Jennings and colleagues (2015,
2016) found evidence to support the use of the technology as BWC officers had fewer response-
to-resistance encounters compared to both pre-BWC implementation and to control officers
during BWC implementation. However, the change in behavior stemming from BWCs is not
always in the direction that some citizens would hope for. For example, Ready and Young
(2015) found that BWC officers were more likely to initiate encounters with citizens and write
citations. However, recent evidence from a global, multi-site study has provided robust evidence
that use of force as it relates to the presence/absence of body-worn cameras varies by officer
discretion for when to turn on/off the camera, and this is a critical point for implementation.
Specifically, Ariel et al. (2016b) demonstrated that use of force significantly decreased when
officers were in “high compliance” for when to turn the camera on/off during treatment and
control shifts, increased when the officers applied discretion during the treatment shifts and
adhered to protocol during the control shifts, and null effects were found when the officers
applied full discretion during both treatment and control shifts.
Lastly, BWCs have been shown to affect the more technical/administrative aspects of an
officer’s job. Jennings et al. (2015) found that BWCs served to enhance report writing and the
collection of evidence. Furthermore, better report writing and evidence collection on the part of
the police can serve to aid local prosecutors. In fact, Morrow et al. (2016) found that cases of
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intimate partner violence, in which the arresting officer(s) was wearing a BWC, were more likely
to result in an arrest, charges filed, cases furthered by the district attorney’s office, and to result
in a conviction.
Methodological Challenges and Directions for Future Research
BWC scholarship is still rather nascent in its development, with the earliest study
reviewed here published in 2014. Despite the developing nature, much of this research has been
conducted using a robust methodology (i.e., randomized controlled trials), albeit with the trials
themselves being implemented in different ways. Nevertheless, there are still several
methodological challenges that need to be addressed in future research. We believe there are four
key methodological challenges that need to be addressed to enhance our understanding of the
effects (and potential benefits) of BWC technology.
The first challenge centers around the effect size that BWCs have on the outcome of
interest. Studies that employ RCT designs purportedly have the highest level of internal validity
(Weisburd, 2010), and the RCT research reviewed here generally demonstrates that BWCs had a
significant effect on the outcome(s), although this effect can vary by officer discretion of when to
turn the camera on/off (Ariel et al., 2016b). The need for additional effect sizes derived from
RCTs (or from rigorous quasi-experimental designs) is especially important in the realm of
BWCs because police agencies need to know their likely return on investment. While BWC
technology itself is cheap, the storage of digital evidence is increasingly expensive (Ariel
2016b). Thus, police agencies may feel less trepidation in allocating portions of their budget to
BWCs if they were able to see an estimate of return on investment. Evidence from this narrative
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review suggests that perhaps BWC adoption and implementation could have several, tangible
benefits (e.g., reduced citizen complaints, reduced police use of force, enhanced-quality police
reports).
A second methodological challenge that should be addressed in future BWC research
revolves around selection effects. As is the case for most criminological research, most of the
current studies had implicit selection effects built into their methodology. The biggest selection
effect present in the reviewed research centers on the fact that agencies choose to adopt BWCs
for a variety of reasons (e.g., consent decree, desire, mandated by state law). Furthermore,
agencies choose whether to participate in research studies and what type of research they are
willing to participate in. While all of this is beyond the control of the researchers, it has strong
implications for the results of the studies. It is likely that those agencies most willing to engage
in BWC research, particularly a tightly-controlled RCT, are those that are least in need of the
potential benefits of the BWC. This means the results of the current studies may actually be
underestimating the effects of BWCs. Or, it is quite possible that the police departments that
have implemented BWCs thus far in these evaluations reviewed here are implementing BWCs as
best as they can, and these effect sizes are as “good as they are going to get”.
In addition, other selection effects include which officers volunteer to participate in a
BWC trial program and which geographic areas (e.g., beats, districts) are chosen for BWCs. For
example, the Ariel’s (2016a) study utilizes Denver’s District six, but media reports indicate the
police department’s administration specifically chose this location due to a high volume of
activity (Mitchell, 2014). This is crucial because the BWC treatment effect can potentially be
affected when these types of decisions are made. Because these decisions are often made by the
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agencies rather than researchers, developing a true estimate of the treatment effect using
between-groups designs are going to be impacted.
A third methodological challenge stems from the realities of police work. During the
more chaotic moments in policing, officers often end up working in different geographic areas
and with officers with whom they may rarely—if ever—come into contact with. While this is not
inherently problematic, this reality of police work can introduce confounding effects (i.e.,
treatment contamination effects) into RCT designs. This is also referred to as leakage (Plewis &
Hurry, 1998), spillover effects (Bloom, 2005), and treatment diffusion (Shadish, Cook, &
Campbell. 2002). The premise is that officers in the control group are exposed to the treatment
(here, the BWC), which then changes the behavior of the non-BWC officer. This again may
cause the underestimating of the true effects of BWCs. Additionally, as Young and Ready (2015)
note, officers’ perceptions of the legitimacy of BWCs was affected by the attitudes of other
officers with whom they interact—irrespective of treatment condition. In this same vein, Ariel et
al. (2015) as well as Ariel et al (2016c) have provided a detailed discussion on the implications
of the “stable-unit-treatment-value” (SUTVA) assumption, or situations that occur where there is
some dependency between the units of analysis in the experiment. The implication of these
possible SUTVA violations is that some studies using the RCT methodology may be
inconsistently estimating the true effect of the BWC technology (Donner & Klar, 2000). Future
research should continue to employ the best possible methodology and try to determine the true
size of the treatment effect from repeated replications across agencies (e.g., Ariel et al., 2016a,
2016b) or consider randomizing BWC and non-BWC shifts within officers (e.g., Ariel et al.,
2014).
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The final methodological challenge highlighted here concerns the intent-to-treat (ITT)
problem. Per Fisher and colleagues (1990) suggest the ITT problem makes the tacit assumption
that all participants were in perfect compliance with the treatment protocol and analyzes them as
such. While this assumption likely holds in laboratory conditions with extreme levels of control,
this assumption is tenuous at best in field experiments (Bollen, 1989). Despite the media
identification of cases where BWCs were not activated by officers when they should have been,
the issue of ITT is rarely addressed in the research. However, in the few studies to date that have
accounted for this issue, the evidence suggests that treatment fidelity (i.e., officers activating
their BWC every time they are meant to) is inextricably linked to the success of BWCs (Ariel et
al., 2016b; Hedberg, Katz, & Choate, in press). Future research should devote greater attention to
the implementation issues, treatment fidelity, and implications for a study’s results and policy
recommendations.
Policy Implications and Considerations
In addition to methodological challenges for researchers, there are also a number of
policy-related issues that need to be considered by police administrators. Given the emerging
nature of the technology, guidelines and policies for effective use are still being developed and
refined. We highlight three specific policy challenges that police agencies will need to address
with the technology.
First, it is incumbent upon police agencies to determine when officers should activate
BWCs. The research here suggests that BWCs can have a significant impact on a variety of
outcomes, but much of the success of BWCs (at least in reducing use of force) preliminarily
seems to be linked to appropriate activation and adherence to when to turn the camera on/off
(Ariel et al., 2016b; Hedberg, Katz, & Choate, in press). While a full explanation of how BWCs
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are meant to impact police-citizen interactions is beyond the scope of this study (but, see
generally Ariel, 2016c), the effectiveness of BWCs is contingent upon multiple factors. The
activation of BWCs, however, is an issue that is not as clear-cut as many would think. This
decision should be guided by policy and deliberately crafted to weigh potential privacy concerns
of both citizens and officers. In Denver, for example, the initial policy was updated—based on
feedback from various stakeholders—to restrict the use of cameras in places where people have a
reasonable expectation of privacy that would be directly compromised by BWCs (e.g.,
restrooms, medical facilities, locker rooms; Arellano, 2015). The spirit of these policies is that
BWCs should serve as a tool to improve legitimacy, accountability, and police-citizen
interactions, rather than to embarrass or needlessly collect personal information. There are also
some states (e.g., Illinois) that have strict laws on eavesdropping, which could force officers to
turn off BWCs and, as such, defeat the overarching purpose of the technology (Veritatis Institute,
2016). Despite the difficulty in balancing privacy and accountability, the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a white paper outlining what the organization considers as
best practices for the fair and effective implementation of BWCs (ACLU, 2017; see also Ariel
2016d).
Second, agencies need to identify an effective way to review the BWC footage. The
volume of information collected by officers wearing BWCs is enormous. Research by Lane
(2006) suggests that while the span of control (i.e., how many subordinates are supervised by a
single supervisor) is relatively small (i.e., between 5 and 12) in most police departments in the
United States, this still creates a great deal of BWC footage to be reviewed by a supervisor.
Using the lower-bound estimate of 5 officers working an 8-hour shift, every officer wearing a
BWC could produce more hours of video than could be reviewed by a supervisor in a work
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week. On the other extreme, simply reviewing those instances in which a citizen files a
complaint may be equally as problematic. Evidence suggests that only about one-third of people
who feel they have been mistreated by the police file a formal complaint (Walker & Bumphus,
1992). Therefore, supervisors would have diminished opportunities to hold problem-officers
accountable. This infrequent reporting may be being driven—at least in part—by the fact that
only ten percent of misconduct cases brought against officers are eventually substantiated (e.g.,
Pate & Fridell, 1993). However, there is a distinct possibility that BWCs could change this
calculus and increase reporting rates because there is now objective video evidence of what
happened during the interaction. Recognizing this as an issue, the International Association of
Chiefs of Police (IACP) recommends that footage from a random sample of officers’ BWCs be
reviewed on a regular basis (IACP, 2014). Or, better yet, for supervisors to (randomly) review
footage that has been tagged for evidence and examine the frequency of officers tagging BWC
video for evidence versus not. There may be concerns with such a policy, as the ‘rank and file’
could object to this practice, as it may reduce their motivation (see Ariel 2016c), so more
research is required to capture the ‘best practice’ approach on auditing and supervisory role in
the use of BWCs
Finally, for BWC technology to maximize its effectiveness, it is necessary to consider
how BWC footage will be utilized. If the goal of BWCs is simply to locate officers who violate
department policy and/or the law and then hold them accountable, then the true effectiveness of
BWCs will never be realized. Some officers, although certainly not all (see Jennings et al.,
2014), may be reticent to adopt BWC technology for fear that it will be used as a new tool of
what some officers perceive as an erratic and punishment-centered police administration
(Paoline, 2001). While officers who do engage in misconduct must certainly be held to account,
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failing to recognize the potential value of BWC footage as a training tool is a missed
opportunity. BWC footage provides a treasure-trove of data for real-time, non-punitive training
sessions designed to build and refine officer competence and tactics. Data from other applied
settings consistently suggests this type of non-punitive feedback can substantially improve
performance and reduce deleterious behaviors (e.g., Theeboom, Beersma, & van Vianen, 2014).
These data could be used for individualized coaching, roll-call trainings, or more comprehensive
departmental training initiatives. Furthermore, agencies need not exclusively use BWC footage
depicting areas in need of improvement, but could also use footage to model expectations and/or
appropriate responses.
Conclusion
The overarching hope of police executives is that BWCs will serve to improve police-
community relations by enhancing the legitimacy of the police. This enhancement will likely
come when the public trusts that officers who violate the law and/or departmental policy will be
held accountable for their actions. The implementation of BWCs help to serve this purpose. In
this study, reviewed the extant scientific literature regarding BWCs in policing following a
systematic search. The evidence seems to suggest that the police are generally receptive to BWC
adoption, and that BWCs can exert positive effects on both citizen and police behavior. Going
forward, researchers should continue to investigate the costs, efficiency, and effectiveness of
BWC technology as there are 1) still a number of unanswered questions in need of empirical
investigation, 2) several methodological challenges to overcome in BWC research, and 3) policy
issues that need to be more carefully considered by police administrators to get the most out of
BWC implementation.
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Table 1. Summary of Studies Included in Narrative Review
Author(s) Study Design Location Statistical
procedure
Outcome(s) Summary of findings
Ariel
(2016)
Stratified sample
of 27,003 street
segments within
six patrol districts
Denver, CO One-way and
repeated
measure
ANOVAs
Crime reporting
(911 calls for
service)
BWCs on officers in low crime
density street segments increased
willingness to report crimes to the
police, but had no effect on crime
Reporting in hotspot street segments
Ariel,
Farrar, &
Sutherland
(2015)
Complete
population of
frontline officers
(n = 54) assigned
to 489 treatment
shifts and 499
control shifts over
a 12-month
period
Rialto, CA Poisson
regression
models and
time-series
ARIMA
models
Officer use of
force and citizen
complaints
Use of force: force incidents were
twice as likely to occur in control
group during experimental period.
Citizen complaints: No significant
differences between treatment shifts
and control shifts; however, there was
a significant reduction (87% in overall
complaints) during experimental
period compared to previous year.
Ariel et al.
(2016)
2,122 officers
assigned to 2,218
treatment shifts
and 2,468 control
shifts
2,122 officers
across 8 European
police
departments; a
total of 10
randomized
controlled trials
Meta analysis;
Cohen’s d
Officer use of
force; sub-group
analysis based
on compliance
with the
experimental
protocol
Use of force rates were significantly
lower (37%) when the officers
complied with the treatment protocol;
use of force rates were 71% higher
when officers did not comply with the
treatment protocol (i.e., the officers
chose when to turn the body-worn
cameras on/off); and null effects were
reported when there was an overall
breakdown in protocol (i.e., full
discretion).
Ariel et al.
(2016a)
2,122 officers
assigned to 2,218
treatment shifts
and 2,468 control
2,122 officers
across 8 European
police
departments; a
Meta analysis;
Cohen’s d
Officer use of
force and
assaults against
officers
Use of force: BWCs had no significant
effect on average. There results were
heterogenous, however. There was a
55% difference in the prevalence of
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shifts total of 10
randomized
controlled trials
use of force between treatment and
control shifts in 3 sites, and negative
findings at most sites (i.e., use of force
increased at most sites).
Assaults against officers: officers
wearing BWCs were more likely to be
assaulted compared to the control
group. Significant heterogeneity was
reported. The rate of assaults against
officers per 1,000 arrests was 14%
higher during the shifts were the
cameras were present. Or in other
words, there were 25 officers
assaulted in treatment shifts compared
to 22 officers assaulted in control
shifts (per 1,000 arrests).
Ariel et al.
(2016b)
1,847 officers
assigned to 1,908
treatment shifts
and 1,974 control
shifts
1,847 officers
across 7 global
police
departments; a
total of 7
randomized
controlled trials
Meta analysis;
Cohen’s d
Citizen
complaints
No significant differences between
treatment shifts and control shifts;
however, there was a significant
reduction (93%) in overall complaints
during experimental period compared
to previous year. Specifically,
complaints dropped from an average
of 1.20 to 0.08 complaints per officer
when comparing pre-treatment and
post-treatment complaints. Significant
heterogeneity was not detected
between the sites.
Bolvin et
al. (2017,
in press)
231 college
students from the
University of
Montreal; 202
police recruits at
Montreal, Quebec,
Canada
Chi-square Citizen and
police recruit
perception of
police shooting
justifiability
Evidence of a BWC perspective bias,
but bias not generalized. University
students (little to no experience of
police work) were not significantly
affected by the camera perspective.
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the Quebec Police
Academy
Participants
randomly shown
one of two videos
of a fictional
police shooting;
one was been
filmed with BWC
and other with a
wall-mounted
surveillance
camera.
Police recruits, however, were
significantly affected by camera
perspective. The more one is trained to
evaluate police interventions, the
greater the effect of camera
perspective. Interestingly, police
recruits who viewed BWC perspective
were more likely to report that officer
fired too early.
Culhane,
Boman, &
Schweitzer
(2016)
Study 1: Pre-
Ferguson (n =
404 U.S. citizens)
Study 2: Post-
Ferguson (n =
432 U.S. citizens)
Participants
learned
information of
police shooting in
which several
conditions were
manipulated,
including
presentation of
information
(BWC vs. audio
vs. transcript)
United States; data
collected through
Amazon’s mTurk
website
ANOVA,
correlation,
and OLS
regression
analyses
Citizen
perception of
police shooting
justifiability
Study 1: 39% of sample thought
shooting was justified, but those in
BWC or audio conditions felt it was
more justified than transcript
condition.
Study 2: 39% of sample also thought
shooting was justified, but, post-
Ferguson, those in BWC condition
had lowest certainty of justifiability
In both studies, majority of
participants still thought police should
use BWCs
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Culhane &
Schweitzer
(2017, in
press)
215 U.S. citizens
Participants
learned
information of
police shooting in
which several
conditions were
manipulated,
including
presentation of
information
(BWC vs. audio
vs. transcript)
United States; data
collected through
Amazon’s mTurk
website
A partial
replication of the
above study; one-
year post-Ferguson
ANOVA Police shooting
justifiability
Overall, 43% of sample thought
shooting was justified.
BWC and audio conditions saw
officer as being slightly more justified
shooting compared to transcript
condition, but differences not
significant.
The mean justification score of BWC
condition was significantly higher
than the post-Ferguson score (Study 2
data above) and not significantly
different from pre-Ferguson mean
(Study 1 data above).
Findings suggest that public’s
perception of the justifiability of
officer shooting returned to levels seen
before national media coverage of
Ferguson.
Gaub et al.
(2016, in
press)
Pre-deployment
and post-
deployment
surveys of
officers randomly
assigned to
treatment (BWC)
or control groups
in three U.S.
cities
Spokane, WA
(treatment, n = 80;
control n = 73)
Tempe, AZ
(treatment, n =
102; control n =
103)
Phoenix, AZ
(treatment, n = 56;
control n = 50)
Descriptive
analyses
Officer
perceptions
regarding the use
of BWCs
Phoenix officers had lowest
perceptions of BWCs both pre- and
post-deployment.
From pre- to post-deployment, all
three departments reported improved
perceptions of the use of BWCs (e.g.,
improve quality of evidence), but
became more skeptical about BWCs
impact on citizen behavior (e.g.,
cooperation) or officer behavior (e.g.,
professionalism, integrity).
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However, post-deployment, Tempe
and Spokane still recognized more
positive effects of BWCs than did
Phoenix.
Hedberg,
Katz, &
Choate
(2016, in
press)
All officers in
Precinct Area 82
wore BWC
(treatment). All
officers in
Precinct Area 81
(control) did not.
Phoenix, AZ
Each Precinct Area
generally had
between 110–110
patrol officers
during study
period.
Linear and
generalized
linear
regression
analyses
Citizen
complaints,
arrests, and
citizen resistance
if arrest is being
made
BWCs had a significantly reduced
citizen complaints (by 62% compared
to control group), but did not have an
impact on arrests or suspect resistance.
Henstock
& Ariel
(2017, in
press)
46 officers were
randomly
assigned on a
weekly basis into
128 treatment
shifts and 140
control shifts
Birmingham South
Local Policing
Unit in the West
Midlands Police
force area; United
Kingdom
Odds ratios Use of force
during arrests
Odds of force used when BWCs are
present are, overall, 50% lower when
compared with control conditions.
Estimates suggest a 35% reduction of
overall weighted force in the treatment
conditions compared with control
conditions. However, effect
concentrates in open-hand tactics
(physical restraints, non-compliant
handcuffing); BWCs had no effect on
more aggressive force responses
(dogs, Tasers, batons, pepper spray).
Jennings,
Fridell, &
Lynch
(2014)
Survey data on 95
patrol officers
Orlando, FL Descriptive
analyses,
means-
difference
tests, and
correlations
Officer
perceptions
regarding the use
of BWCs
Officers generally agreed that: (1)
their agency should fully implement
BWCs; (2) BWCs would improve
citizen behavior; (3) BWCs would not
reduce their willingness nor their
fellow officers’ willingness to respond
to calls for service; (4) BWCs would
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improve the behavior of their fellow
officers, but not necessarily their own
behavior; and (5)
BWCs would reduce their and their
fellow officers’ number of external
and internal complaints.
Jennings,
Lynch, &
Fridell
(2015)
Patrol officers
randomly
assigned to
treatment (n = 46)
and control (n =
43) groups
Survey and
official data
collected
Orlando, FL T-tests Officer response-
to-resistance,
serious external
complaints, and
officer
perceptions of
BWC
effectiveness
BWCs reduced response-to-resistance
incidents by 53% and reduced serious
external complaints by 65%. Survey
data indicated that BWCs improved
evidence collection and report writing,
and that future police-citizen
interactions could be improved if
officer had a chance to watch video of
his/her previous interactions.
Jennings et
al. (2016,
in press)
Using propensity
score matching,
60 patrol officers
receiving BWCs
were matched to a
statistically
comparable
sample of 60 non-
BWC officers.
Data were
collected both in
the 12 months
post-BWC
implementation
and
in the 12 months
Tampa, FL Propensity
score
matching; t-
tests
Officer response-
to-resistance
BWC officers involved in
significantly fewer number of
response-to-resistance incidents post-
BWC implementation.
BWC officers’ mean frequency of
response-to-resistance decreased by
8.4% from the 12 months pre-BWC
implementation to the 12 months post-
BWC implementation compared with
a 3.4% increase observed for the non-
BWC officers.
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prior to BWC-
implementation.
Morrow,
Katz, &
Choate
(2016, in
press)
All officers in
Precinct Area 82
wore BWC
(treatment). All
officers in
Precinct Area 81
(control) did not.
Phoenix, AZ
Each Precinct Area
generally had
between 110–110
patrol officers
during study
period.
Means-
difference tests
Intimate partner
violence (IPV)
arrest,
prosecution, and
conviction
Compared with non-BWC cases,
BWC cases were significantly more
likely to result in an arrest, have
charges filed, have cases furthered,
result in a guilty plea, and result in a
guilty verdict at trial.
Nowacki &
Willits
(2017, in
press)
2013 LEMAS
data; 823 police
agencies across
48 states
United States Logistic
regression
Agency
utilization of
BWCs
Agencies with larger budgets and that
are unionized are less likely to adopt
BWC technology.
Agencies that already use other forms
of technology and that have adopted
vehicle cameras are more likely to
adopt BWC technology.
Pelfrey &
Keener
(2016)
Survey and
interview data of
72 front-line and
supervisory
campus patrol
personnel
An urban
university in the
U.S.
Descriptive,
linear
regression, and
qualitative
analyses
Perceptions of:
officer behavior,
complaints,
BWC
effectiveness,
and agency
adoption
Most respondents felt BWCs would
improve quality of evidence and ease
prosecution of offenders.
Officers generally felt: BWC
advantages outweighed BWC
disadvantages; BWCs should be
adopted by the agency; BWC data
would help disprove citizen
complaints; BWCs would have little
impact on their own behavior or on
how other officers interact with
citizens; BWCs would not influence
citizen behavior; and BWCs would
not improve officer safety.
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Supervisors, generally, were more
enthusiastic about BWC adoption and
had more positive expectations of
BWC effectiveness than patrol
officers.
Ready &
Young
(2015)
100 patrol
officers assigned
to treatment (n =
50) and control (n
= 50) groups in a
quasi-
experimental
design.
Data based on
field contact
reports completed
by the officers
following a
police-citizen
encounter.
Mesa, AZ
During first 5
months of
implementation,
officers were
mandated by
policy to activate
BWC when
responding to a
call or having any
contact with the
public. BWC
policy was
changed to
discretionary
activation during
the last 5 months
of evaluation.
Hierarchical
generalized
linear
modeling
Officer behavior
and helpfulness
of BWCs
BWC officers were more likely to
issue citations, initiate encounters;
they are less likely to perform a stop-
and-frisk or make an arrest.
BWC officers more likely to report
that cameras are a helpful tool in
police-citizen encounters.
Smykla et
al. (2016)
Survey data of 24
command-level
police personnel
A southern U.S.
county
Descriptive
analyses
Perceptions of
BWCs
The majority of respondents were in
favor of BWC use, but did not
strongly think that BWCs would
impact officer effectiveness. They did
generally feel BWCs would impact
evidentiary issues (evidence collection
and guilty pleas).
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Most respondents thought BWCs
would impact officer use of force,
there was also concern that it would
affect officers’ ability to use necessary
force.
Respondents expressed strong concern
that the media would use BWC
footage to persecute the police.
Young &
Ready
(2015)
100 patrol
officers assigned
to treatment (n =
50) and control (n
= 50) groups in a
quasi-
experimental
design.
Data based on
officer surveys, a
created shared-
incident network,
and field contact
reports completed
by the officers
following a
police-citizen
encounter.
A southwestern
U.S. police
department
During first 5
months of
implementation,
officers were
mandated by
policy to activate
BWC when
responding to a
call or having any
contact with the
public. BWC
policy was
changed to
discretionary
activation during
the last 5 months
of evaluation.
Descriptive
analyses,
network
autocorrelation
models,
BWC legitimacy Exposure to BWC use did not impact
officer perceptions of camera
legitimacy.
However, an officer’s framing of
BWCs as legitimate is influenced by
the ways in which other officers in
their incident network also frame
cameras. Attitudes about the benefits
and legitimacy of BWCs are impacted
by participating in shared events with
other officers who are equipped
BWCs.
Young &
Ready
(2016, in
100 patrol
officers assigned
to treatment (n =
A southwestern
U.S. police
department
Hierarchical
generalized
linear
Officer-initiated
BWC activation
BWC activation significantly more
prevalent under a mandatory-
activation policy compared to a
Page 29 of 30 Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies & Management
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Policing: an International Journal of Police Strategies & Management
30
press) 50) and control (n
= 50) groups in a
quasi-
experimental
design.
Data based on
field contact
reports completed
by the officers
following a
police-citizen
encounter.
During first 5
months of
implementation,
officers were
mandated by
policy to activate
BWC when
responding to a
call or having any
contact with the
public. BWC
policy was
changed to
discretionary
activation during
the last 5 months
of evaluation.
modeling discretionary-activation policy.
While BWC activation declined
during discretionary-activation period,
this was less prevalent among officers
who volunteered to wear BWC for
study compared to those officers who
were assigned to wear BWC for study.
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